Second Chances
by EzrianAnonymous
Summary: Aria's new-found information about A has her distraught. Can she come to terms with what has happened?
1. AltercAtions

Aria stares blankly at the many crumpled pieces of paper consuming her desk space. She could not simply find the words within her to express her many raging emotions. She wanted so badly to tell him, just to let him know exactly what it was that he had done to her. How is one supposed to react when their safe place to land turns into such a rocky storm?

Her eyes filled with tears as she threw away the crumpled pieces of paper filled with her attempts to grasp onto what was going on in her life. She was drowning, desperately trying to find something, anything to grab a hold of just to hang on for a little bit longer. She walks over to her bed clutching onto a picture frame, inside the frame was a picture of two people with such bright smiles. You could see the love in their eyes, the trust that had been built. Or so she had thought.

Arias phone began to buzz, she had been avoiding talking with anyone ever since she found out that the love of her life was her tormentor. How could he do this to her? After all they had been through? She had many questions but she could not bring herself to ask any of them. She had been silent for three days. The silence somehow helped, but yet let her mind wonder off into the unknown which was something that she was unsure if she was comfortable with.

She picked up her phone where she had dozens of text messages and missed calls from her friends, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily. She knew that her friends were reaching out to her because they were concerned. But how was she to make them feel better when she wasn't even sure of what was going on herself?

"Aria when you get this call me back, we're worried!"

"Aria, are you okay?"

"Please answer us Aria!"

She wanted to respond but her words were failing her. Her thumbs danced around above the keyboard as she deliberated on a reply. She began to type though she was unsure of what exactly she was going to say.

"I'm sorry for being distant." She texted back. It wasn't much but that was all she could think to say not even knowing which friend the text went to. Which that didn't matter, she assumed that the three of them were together anyways.

"Can we come over?" Hanna replied.

Before Aria could text back she heard someone walking up the stairs in her house. Her heart froze as she could not figure out who would be in her house. Mike was away at a friend's house and her father was teaching in Syracuse yet again.

It took her a minute to find some strength within her to stand up in the middle of her room. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, her blood turned ice cold and that is when the panic set in. She couldn't breathe.

"Is this is? Is this finally it?" She thought to herself, her head beginning to pound right along with her heart.

Aria fell to her knees trying to catch her breath, but she couldn't. She closed her eyes when she heard her bedroom door open. She couldn't even muster a thought as she let herself collapse on the ground. She felt instant relief as soon as she heard familiar voices.

"Oh my God, Aria!" Spencer yelled, throwing her bag onto the floor dropping down to help Aria, the other girls did the same.

The girls knew that Aria had a history with panic attacks, but this was the first time that they had witnessed one in a very long time. Each breath seemed to be easier to catch now that Aria knew that she wasn't alone with an intruder.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked, moving Arias hair away from her face.

Aria just continued to stare at the ground, breathing hard. She was comforted that her friends were there, but she still could not find her words.

"It's okay, we're here for you." Hanna said sweetly.

Aria just looked at her friends and nodded.

"Thank you." She tried to speak, but before she could get anything out the tears began to flow from her eyes flooding her cheeks.

The girls stood around Aria hugging her, as if the hug were holding her together. This wasn't entirely not true because she felt like she would fall apart at any second. She was holding on by what seemed like threads. The group hug broke whenever Arias phone began to buzz again.

"It must be my mom or my dad." She told the girls reaching for her phone. But as soon as she clicked on the message her heart froze yet again.

"We need to talk." Aria read the text message as her eyes grew wide, only for them to fill with tears again. She threw her phone to the floor.

"Who was it?" Emily was concerned.

"Ez." Aria tried to spit out. "Ezra."

The girls just looked around at each other not knowing what they should or shouldn't say. Aria regretfully picked up her phone and began texting back.

"Meet me at the brew." She typed. It took some strength to hit send, but she felt as if she was ready. She was tired of hiding away in her room crying her eyes out. She wanted to be heard, and she wanted answers. Aria walked to her closet and picked out some clothes.

"Where are you going?" Spencer questioned.

Aria walked out of the bathroom, wearing black leggings and an oversized sweater. She had not been out of her sweatpants in three days.

"I'm going to meet Ezra." She said wiping away tears staring at herself in her mirror. She looked like crap and she knew it, she didn't care.

"Let us go with you!" Spencer yelled.

"No, this is something that has to be dealt with between me and him. If he really is A, then I need to know why, when, how, everything."

"But you seriously shouldn't…"

"I am going alone!" Aria cut Spencer off.

The girls began to look around at each other again not knowing what they should or should not say.

"If I'm not back in an hour call the cops."

"Like that will do any good." Hanna mumbled.

"Hanna!" Spencer and Emily yelled in unison.

"What?!" Hanna yelled back.

Aria didn't have any time for this. She put on her black boots and she headed out the door. It was almost sunset, and the sky was so beautiful. She began to tear up again thinking about the times that she and Ezra had watched the sunset and cuddled together on a blanket. How he would read poetry to her, and she would lay there in his arms. Safe from every possible bad thing in the world. It saddened her to know that it would never be like that again.

When she reached the Brew, she saw him standing there. He looked beautiful, his brown hair combed over to the side not a one out of place, and he was wearing a blue dress shirt with a black tie and a navy blue vest with black pants. He looked as perfect as he always did, so natural with his hands stuffed in his pockets. She felt her heart flutter, but she fought back the tears as she walked up to him.

"You wanted to speak with me?" She roughly spoke.

"Aria." He looked at her just as he always did, his eyes fixated on hers as if he were reading her like a story. Too bad that was the truth.

"Can we go inside?" He asked her, holding his hand out for her. But she walked past him through the doors of the coffee shop. He followed her.

She looked around, normally there were more than enough people there to fill the empty spaces but not today. She felt herself panic again.

"Where is everyone?" She asked.

Ezra shut the door and locked it. A smirk appeared on his face as he walked around closing all of the blinds on the windows.

"Everyone is gone. It's just you and me tonight." He said.

Aria could feel her blood turning to ice again, and her breath became hard to catch again. She sat down in a chair holding her chest. Ezra saw what was happening and he ran to her side.

"Please don't panic. Please don't be scared. I'm the same person that you always thought that I was. I love you and I would never hurt you. Please Aria you have to believe me." Ezra pleaded holding onto her free hand.

Aria tried to speak through her gasps for air.

"I loved you. I trusted you. How could you do that to me Ezra? After all that we have been through?" The tears began to flow from her eyes again. Ezra started to rub her cheeks wiping her tears away.

"Please let me explain." He begged. He started to hug her and her breathing finally went back to normal. Until she heard a loud bang.

"What was that?!" She yelled.

Ezra looked around and he then noticed that they were not in the room alone. He made eye contact with the intruder wearing a black hoodie. He stepped in front of Aria, not wanting her to see what was happening because she would panic again.

Aria had no idea of what was happening. She was unsure if she even wanted to know. All she knew, was that she wanted to have that conversation with Ezra whatever was going on right now could wait. She turned around and tugged on Ezra's arm, but then she noticed what he was staring at.

"What do you want?" Ezra demanded an answer form this mysterious person in a black hood. But he did not receive an answer. A just stood there.

Aria could feel the panic in her body reappearing yet again as she hid behind Ezra.

A walked closer to Aria and Ezra. Ezra shielded Aria to the best of his abilities, but A saw her. Who was he kidding of course A saw her there.

"Leave her alone!" Ezra raised his voice

A was walking closer toward him. Trying to get behind him to get to Aria. Ezra was walking backwards towards the door hoping that Aria would follow his lead which would allow her to run straight from his protection, to the door, leading out of the Brew to safety.

She did her best to walk, but her legs were so shaky and her breathing was so hard she could barely move. She was paralyzed there.

Ezra and A were nose to nose at this point. Of course the black hooded figure was wearing a complete black mask so the identity would not be revealed.

"I said, LEAVE HER ALONE!" Ezra yelled at the top of his voice. But before he could do anything, before he could even move A pulled out a gun and pointed it towards Ezra.

Aria was peeking from behind Ezra's arm where he was shielding her, she saw the gun and she screamed. A slowly started pulling the gun away from Ezra and pointed it at her.

Ezra knocked the gun out of A's hands, it hit the floor hard causing it to go off. Ezra yelled in pain as he dropped to the floor. Aria began screaming as she saw Ezra's leg bleeding. She was so unsure of what she should do. Her breath became even harder to catch than before, she felt light headed and she felt to her knees. All she could think about was Ezra, all she could see was him bleeding, and all she could hear was his screams of antagonizing pain.

A slowly pointed the gun at Aria. She closed her eyes and bent her head down. That was it, she had been defeated by A. There was nothing that she could do but to wait for her turn as the man that she loved was laying on the floor bleeding trying to protect her.

Ezra saw the gun pointed at Aria, he did the best that he could do to knock the gun out of A's hands.

Aria heard a loud BANG! She waited for the pain, but she didn't feel anything. She kept her eyes closed, until she heard familiar voices.

"Aria?!" Spencer yelled.

"Aria?!" Hanna and Emily yelled in unison.

Aria opened up her eyes as she saw A running out the door. She was confused, she had not been shot, A had not been shot, but she heard the gun go off. Then she looked beside her.

Ezra was still bleeding, but not only from his leg this time. When Ezra was trying to knock the gun out of A's hands, it went off shooting him in the stomach.

Aria started to scream as she touched Ezra stomach. She looked at her hand that was now red.

Ezra stared blankly up at the ceiling, trying to catch his own breath. He looked over at Aria, and he could see the emotional pain in her eyes, as she could see the physical pain in his.

Aria grabbed his hand as she began to cry. She laid her head on his chest and wept.

"Aria?" Ezra whispered.

Aria lifted her head to give him a quick kiss on the lips.

"I didn't get to explain." He tried to spit out as his eyes fluttered a bit.

The girls finally found Aria in the floor with Ezra, bloody. They didn't know what had happened, they began to scream as they thought that Ezra was A. They tried to pick Aria up off of Ezra, but she wouldn't let go of his hand.

"No!" She screamed. "Let me go!" "Let me go!"

The girls sat her back down and she rested her head on Ezra's chest again.

"I love you." Ezra muttered

"I love you, too." Aria cried as she felt Ezra's chest stop moving up and down. His arm went limp, no longer holding her hand as she was holding his. She began to scream as she heard sirens.

"Ezra. Ezra. Ezra." Aria kept screaming, but he didn't wake up.


	2. UnderstAnding

Aria held onto Ezra's hand, his chest was no longer moving up and down but she would not give up on him. Their whole relationship had always felt that way, everything seemed to work against them but neither one of them would ever give up, and she wasn't about to start. He had never given up on her, so she was going to fight for him.

The paramedics shortly arrived carrying Ezra away on a stretcher. Aria stood with her friends, using them as her own personal crutches. She stared at Ezra as he was being carried through the door of the brew, he looked pale and broken. Her head was spinning, everything had happened so quickly. Spencer, Hanna, and Emily stared at Aria knowing she could not explain what had happened right away.

Aria watched the paramedics load Ezra into the ambulance, but her concentration was soon broken by the Rosewood police. Of course the cops were going to question her, but what could she really say?

"Ma'am, could you please give me a description of what happened here tonight?" A cop questioned Aria.

To be honest she was unclear of what had happened herself, let alone tell someone else about it. Her life was so complicated with a web spun with so many lies even the biggest compulsive liar in the world would be confused at this point. Aria stared at the ground momentarily trying to gather her thoughts she could not tell them that Ezra had been her significant other, and she could not tell the cops about A.

"Make it believable." She thought to herself.

In other occasions when a lie needed to be told Spencer was very useful, and the girls always had time to practice their story before the police were ever involved.

Aria looked up at the cop with her teary eyes. Her hands and knees were shaking, her words were failing her yet again when all she wanted to do was answer the questions so she could get to the hospital to see Ezra.

"I walked into the brew for some coffee. I saw Mr. Fitz here, so I decided to ask him for some tutoring on an assignment that was due." Her voice was very shaky.

The cop was writing Arias answers down as she said them. He stared at her as if he didn't believe her. She tried as hard as she could to make it believable, so she decided to play the victim card.

"What happened after that?" the cop questioned.

"We heard a loud bang, Ez… acted on his gut feeling and locked the front door. He was on his way to the back whenever we heard an intruder." Aria closed her eyes, tears still running down her face as she relived the horrific scene that just took place.

"What did this intruder look like?" the cop asked, Aria felt like he knew that she was lying. But she had to try.

"I didn't get a chance to see the intruder, sir. Mr. Fitz protected me." Aria stated.

But whenever the cop looked at Aria with a puzzled face she knew that she had messed up. Her eyes grew wide as she tried to find a way to undo the mistake she had just made.

"Protected?" He asked.

"Yes, as any teacher would do." Aria blurted out. Hoping that would cover up her mix up.

"Go on." The cop demanded, still writing everything down as he heard it.

"I closed my eyes, I was scared. I heard two gunshots, and I heard scream out in pain. Then I heard my friend's voices, they had been looking for me. Whenever I opened my eyes, I assume the intruder had ran away because all I saw was lying on the floor." Aria explained, tears in her eyes again.

Her story must have been more believable than she thought, because the cop let her leave. Aria was so relieved to be free of questioning, but she knew it was only for now. Aria walked out of the Brew with her friends, who were all still very confused.

The girls all looked at Aria waited for an explanation but she wasn't exactly sure that she could give them one. The complete truth was that she didn't know what had happened.

"Are you okay?" Spencer asked her.

"I'm fine, I just want to get to the hospital and see Ezra." Aria exclaimed.

"Whoa, wait a second. Rewind and play that again. You've spent three days sitting in your sweats in your room alone because of him. What the hell happened in there?" Spencer demanded an answer. It seemed as if she was being very rude, but to her knowledge Ezra was still A so why would Aria want to protect him?

"Spencer…" Hanna tried to calm Spencer down, but Spencer is a Hastings and Hastings are very stubborn people.

"No! He has been toying with us for years! A cat can only play with the mouse for so long before it finally gets hungry enough to eat!" Spencer yelled.

"He's not A!" Aria yelled walking away from her friends.

"What do you mean he's not A?" Emily asked sympathetically.

"He's not A!" Aria repeated herself.

"Well then what is he?!" Spencer yelled.

Aria knew that Spencer wanted to get to the bottom of the situation as they all did, but now was not the time. She already felt bad enough that Ezra risked his life for her, let alone to still believe that he is A.

"First thing is first, Aria talk to us. Tell us what happened." Hanna asked walking towards Aria.

Aria turned around and stared at her friends. She knew by the looks on their faces that they were worried but what more can she really tell them? Her heart was too broken and bruised to fight with them at this point.

"I met with Ezra at the Brew, we walked inside and we were alone. At first I started to panic, but then he told me that he was still the person that I knew. He was trying to explain to me that we were wrong." Aria tried to get the words out before her heart started to ache again. She felt another round of a massive flood of tears making its way through her eyes.

"We heard a noise, and when Ezra turned around it was A. Ezra tried to protect me. A had a gun and A shot him." Aria cried, her friends all gathered around her.

"Aria, I am so sorry. I thought…but we knew…" Spencer tried to speak but she was at a loss for words. Spencer was a Hastings, and Hastings are almost never wrong.

"I just need to see him." Aria said as she turned around to walk to the hospital.

The girls all loaded up into Spencer's car and she drove them to the hospital. Aria walked into the waiting room, the smell of hospitals made her stomach feel sick. She began looking around silently searching for the nurse's desk and approached a nurse.

"Hi, I was just coming to check on Ezra Fitz." Aria said, still with a shaky voice.

"Are you immediate family?" The nurse asked.

Aria's eyes grew wide, how was she to explain herself to this nurse?

"No, no I am just a concerned student of his." Aria stated.

"We all are." Spencer strongly said as she and the other two girls walked up behind Aria.

The nurse flipped through the pages in her book that was laid out in front of her.

"He is in surgery right now, it will take a couple of hours for it to be completed." The nurse said staring at the girls.

"I'll just wait here then. Thank you." Aria told the nurse.

The girls sat down in the waiting room staring at the ground. Aria felt so guilty for everything.

"If I hadn't of thought that he was A we would have still been together." Aria thought to herself, within those two hours a million different thoughts went through hear head. All of them blaming herself.

"Miss." The nurse said, motioning for Aria to approach the desk.

Aris hurridly followed instructions,she sprung out of her chair like a freshly toasted piece of bread in a toaster oven.

"You can see him now, but only for a few minutes."

Aria followed the nurse down a long hallway, what felt like the walk of death. Aria didn't even want to think about the word death. She didn't want to think at all. All she knew was that she wanted to see Ezra.

As the door slowly began to open, she held her breath. Trying to prepare herself for what she was about to see. Aria walked into the room, and the nurse shut the door behind her.

There he was, laying in a hospital bed. Aria looked at him slowly from his feet up to his head, his leg wrapped up in gauze, elevated. She saw all of the wires connected to him, then she saw the breathing tube. She could hear the beeping noise in the background, at least she knew that his heart was still beating.

It was so strange for her to see him this way. A man this is always so strong, independent, and in charge of his own life is now laying in the hospital looking so broken and lifeless. She wanted nothing more but to run over to him, to hug him, to tell him that she was sorry for everything that had happened. She wanted to tell him that she wishes that it had been her instead of him, how it wasn't fair that he had to pay for her mistakes.

Aria walked over to Ezra, she started to push his hair back as she always had done. She touched his fingers, and she was startled by how cold they were.

"Ezra, I'm sorry. I am so sorry." She whispered to him, tears in her eyes she kissed his hand. "I will do anything to make this up to you. I promise. Just please, please come back to me."

She stared at his face, his face looked as if it were made of stone. She missed him so much, he was there physically, but he was somewhere else.

"I promise that I will come back. I love you Ezra Fitz." Aria whispered as low as she could, kissing him on the cheek. She squeezed his hand one more time before she walked away.


End file.
